Shortlist for Scotland’s biggest literary prize

Nineteen authors are in the running to win £30,000 as part of this year’s Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust 2011 Book Awards, in partnership with Creative Scotland. Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust has been proud sponsor of the award for the last three years.

Four category winners – in fiction, non-fiction, poetry and first book - will be announced in May, one of whom will go on to win Scotland’s largest literary prize, the ‘Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year', which will be announced as part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August

The books capture the width and breadth of literary talent, from both writers living in Scotland and those who live elsewhere but whose book has a particular Scottish interest. Regardless, each writer explores beauty, nature, disaster, religion, history and politics in Scotland, or far beyond.

Dr Gavin Wallace, Creative Scotland Portfolio Manager for Literature, Publishing and Language and Chair of the Judging Panel, said:

“There may be a retraction in the global publishing industry, but from the evidence of this longlist there is clearly no diminution in the sheer quality and range of contemporary Scottish writing. The judges were particularly overwhelmed – and that is no exaggeration – by the exhilarating quality of the shortlists for Poetry and Non-Fiction.”

This year, for the first time, Creative Scotland will ask readers and book lovers across Scotland to get involved in who wins Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year. More details to follow when the category winners are announced on Thursday 19 May 2011.

The authors have been recognized for their literary excellence by judges Professor Kirsty Gunn, Chair of Writing Practice and Study, University of Dundee; Alistair Moffat, Artistic Director of the Borders Book Festival; and Professor Carla Sassi, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Verona. Dr Gavin Wallace, Creative Scotland, chaired the panel.

Professor Kirsty Gunn, a former Book of the Year winner, added:

“Once again, it was a very great pleasure to go through piles of books from all over Scotland, Britain and beyond and see at first hand and in great detail the range of literary and publishing activity that goes on around us.

“In particular, I was impressed and inspired by the small presses of Scotland and the kind of books that are being made and created in literary communities all over the country, from writing workshops in the Highlands to inner city book groups. This is a sign of an articulate, creative and intelligent nation, in love with books and reading.”

The longlisted books are:

Fiction
• Robert Alan Jamieson – ‘Da Happie Laand’ (Luath)
• Bella Pollen – ‘The Summer of the Bear’ (Mantle)
• Leila Aboulela – ‘Lyrics Alley’ (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• James Robertson – ‘And the Land Lay Still’ (Hamish Hamilton)
• Cynthia Rogerson – ‘I Love You, Goodbye’ (B&W)
• Alan Warner – ‘The Stars in the Bright Sky’ (Jonathan Cape)

Non-Fiction
• Jackie Kay – ‘Red Dust Road’ (Picador)
• Andrew Greig – ‘At the Loch of the Green Corrie’ (Quercus)
• Stuart Kelly – ‘Scott-land’ (Polygon)
• Lesley McDowell – ‘Between the Sheets’ (Overlook Duckworth)
• James McGonigal – ‘Beyond the Last Dragon’ (Sandstone Press)

Poetry
• Eddie Gibbons – ‘What They Say About You’ (Leamington Books)
• Kei Miller – ‘A Light Song of Light’ (Carcanet)
• Robin Robertson – ‘The Wrecking Light’ (Picador)
• Stewart Conn – ‘The Breakfast Room’ (Bloodaxe)

First Book
• Simon Hall – ‘The History of Orkney Literature’ (John Donald)
• Rachel Hewitt – ‘Map of a Nation’ (Granta)
• Sue Peebles – ‘The Death of Lomond Friel’ (Vintage)
• Maggie Rabatski – ‘Down From the Dance’ (New Voices Press)

For more information about the awards, including previous winners, visit Scottish Book Awards